Exploring Surrey's Past

Dorking: South Street Caves

Caves caused by the excavation of sand in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries exist all over Dorking. They have been used as cellars by residents and shop owners for the storage of perishable goods, and particularly, for liquor. Tales abound of smugglers making use of them in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The most spectacular of these caves lies under South Street and has carefully designed compartments and stairs leading to a circular chamber fifty feet below the surface.